We've said it before, and we'll surely say it again, but even though green IT is here to stay, it's still got a long way to go.

One of the trends I noted in my 2008 roundup of green IT stories -- and one of the most promising trends out there, is that companies are increasingly harnessing the power of IT to solve bigger environmental issues. From IBM's goal of mapping water systems to maximize efficiency to the E.U.'s plan to put IT to work in buildings to trim energy use, it's clear that the sphere in which IT can operate is expanding, and much to the good.

In the just-released State of Green Business 2009 report, we found that we can attribute to IT some of the steady improvements in the energy used by buildings as well as in the overall energy used in the U.S. per dollar of GDP. New buildings, whether they're intended to be green or not, are significantly greener than the same types of facilities from two decades ago, due in some part to improved building controls that can cut back on the amount of energy to heat, cool and light any type of building.

For both these areas -- overall energy efficiency as well as expanding the environmental influence of IT -- our computing powers are being used for good. But at the same time, there are some hefty costs from our ever-growing reliance on computers. First and foremost is the energy drain from all those machines being put to poor use: One study found that unless the IT industry starts taking advantage of power-saving features and build with an eye toward energy efficiency, the global impact of IT will eclipse the total emissions of the United Kingdom.

But what we also found -- for the second year in a row -- is that our growing mountains of e-waste are vastly outpacing the amount of electronics that we're taking in for processing. Although the EPA estimates that there are roughly 1.3 million tons of electronics at the end of their lives, in 2007 we only collected 244,000 tons of electronics -- barely one-sixth of the total waste stream.

Although newer electronics, especially as evidenced by those meeting the EPEAT standards for green machines (a number which is growing quickly, by the way), contain fewer harmful chemicals than older computers, it's obviously not the newer machines that are going to landfill.

All this is to say that, despite the sheer quantity of promising news and commitments we cover on GreenerComputing as on GreenBiz.com, there is plenty of room for improvement. Here's hoping that 2009, with a new administration in Washington and economic peril causing companies to consider all matter of cost-saving measures, we see some of that improvement really take root.